Connectix used to make a product called Virtual Playstation (I think that was the name, anyway). It let you play Playstation games on the Mac. I remember we bought my brother a copy for a birthday or Christmas back then.

There's a piece of software called eyeTV that requires a broadband connection to watch the tv through the net. Obviously this doesn't help you emulate a playstation 2, you could try a search on the connectix site but becuase its not interlaced on a computer monitor, and its probably 3x the resolution it will look real sketchy (in full screen mode).

I use something called a Viewsonic nextvision N5 to occasionally play my gamecube. It works very well... in my opinion and I have compared it to how it looked on my televison...the picture quality is better using my mac.

Its amazing how wrong a whole bunch of members can be. SOme of you have the right idea but don't know any details and some of you missed the boat completely.

Okay here we go, you want to do either 1 of two things.

A) You have a playstation 2 and want to play it using oyur iMac as a screen.

B) You want to emulate a PS2 on your mac so you don't need a PS2.

a) This is easy, and this is what I do! I have a powermac so I have a PCI TV card called a Televio (www.televio.com) and it works beautifully. I also have my VCR and my Freeview box plugged into this. You, however have an iMac, you cannot put any PCI cards into it (goodbye ATI all in wonder), You can get a number of Firewire or USB solutions. But, AND ITS A BIG BUTT, USB solutions introduce a delay in the video and sound, ie you will turn left on your playstation one second and the thing you are controllng will turn left a second later, not good, although it could be interesting in those easier games. A Firewire device may not have this but I have never tested so I don't know.

b) No emulators exist for the mac, however there are some for linux and windows, I am not sure how good they are but if they work then there's the hope that one day one of them might be ported to the mac.

Staff Member

There's at least one open-source PS2 emulator. It's not good enough to play any games on yet, but once it gets there, somebody should be able to port it to the Mac. But you're asking about connecting your real PS2 to your Mac, just get an analogue to FireWire converter, like manitoubalck said.

Originally posted by Nermal There's at least one open-source PS2 emulator. It's not good enough to play any games on yet, but once it gets there, somebody should be able to port it to the Mac. But you're asking about connecting your real PS2 to your Mac, just get an analogue to FireWire converter, like manitoubalck said.

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But is an analogue-firewire converter realtime? Thats pretty crucial for a console.

i loved using connectix vga on my old imac. it was fun. we even got the usb playstation controller and everything. i hope that there will soon be a PS2 emulator because then i couold just buse my neighbor's PS2 games without having to buy a PS2

There are a number of products that convert video (and audio) into a firewire DV stream that a Mac can display, and although there may be some lag (I've never tried playing a game with mine, so I'm not sure), it won't be as bad as a USB solution.

The ones I'm familiar with are the ADS Pyro, Formac Studio, Pinnacle Studio MovieBox DV. I own a small sony box that does the same stuff, but it was discontinued years ago.

These all cost in the $200-300 range, and for example, this site sells several:

There are a number of products that convert video (and audio) into a firewire DV stream that a Mac can display, and although there may be some lag (I've never tried playing a game with mine, so I'm not sure), it won't be as bad as a USB solution.

The ones I'm familiar with are the ADS Pyro, Formac Studio, Pinnacle Studio MovieBox DV. I own a small sony box that does the same stuff, but it was discontinued years ago.

These all cost in the $200-300 range, and for example, this site sells several:

Usually there IS a delay, but it is under 1 second. Its not ideal for gaming though...

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Their is a delay (2-3 seconds according to El Gato) they expressly say it is capable of gaming but the delay is pretty impairing, unless you're playing something like FF. Why would you want to game on a computer screen? You have to be practically sitting right next to the thing.

Their is a delay (2-3 seconds according to El Gato) they expressly say it is capable of gaming but the delay is pretty impairing, unless you're playing something like FF. Why would you want to game on a computer screen? You have to be practically sitting right next to the thing.

Get wireless controllers, sit back, and relax.

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Of course its not so great when trying to play a game that way, but it was asked for the delay... and my combo of Analogue Source to Formac Studio to Mac over FW provides a delay of under 1 second.
Good for some games, not good for Action games or shoot em ups

You know what would be a lot easier...buy Mac games and play them on your mac, or play your ps2 games on your ps2. Different hardware exist for a reason...

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This isn't right, he has a PS2 and he wants to use his lovely mac screen to play it on. This is what I do and it is the only feasible option. I'm a student and I can't afford a Mac and a TV, actually I probably could but I have no space to put it in my Room and my 17" studio display is much better than any TV. Does anyone know if there is a TV card like mine (Televio or alchemy TV) that supports 60hz signal input and has better picture quality? I mean the ps2 looks REALLY pixelly on my Mac at full screen, even when sitting back from it.?

You know what would be a lot easier...buy Mac games and play them on your mac, or play your ps2 games on your ps2. Different hardware exist for a reason...

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I dont have room for a TV. If I buy a TV i'll probably have to get it home somehow... TV is hard to move around. I kinda like to see decent games running off this ibook LCD, even if it's only a firewire pass thru .

I guess the next option for me is to get a monitor plus some sort of VGA-anologue converter.

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